Countless NACAC leaders, members, staff, and others framed a vision for NACAC’s five-year Strategic Plan 2003—2007. This plan identifies six goals that guide the organization’s annual and long-term planning in support NACAC’s mission, vision and core values.
I. Professional Development
The education community will value NACAC’s role in providing professional development for the counseling, admission and enrollment management professions.
II. Image and Recognition
Admission, counseling and enrollment professionals and the families they serve, as well as policymakers, foundations, the media and others, will recognize NACAC as the trusted source of expertise on programs and services related to the postsecondary transition.
III. Public Advocacy
Policymakers and education leaders will recognize NACAC as the primary authority on secondary and postsecondary transition issues.
IV. Ethics and Professional Practice
The educational community will recognize NACAC as the leader in defining and promoting best professional practices and ethical standards.
V. Body of Knowledge
NACAC will be the clearinghouse for relevant information, including research data, trends and transition issues that impact the counseling, admission and enrollment management professions.
VI. Inclusive Community
NACAC will proactively encourage, welcome and value diverse perspectives in membership.
As NACAC comes to the end of the first three years of this plan, we have implemented many of the strategies outlined in the plan and have created new strategies as changing conditions have demanded. Organizations must be adaptable to in order to stay vital for the long-term. NACAC has been both proactive and reactive to changes in the environment that affect our many constituencies: our organization, our members, our profession and our students.
NACAC begins the New Year with great expectations: expectations for more effective, informed and nimble national governance and relationships with the state and regions, for increased student and member participation in the National College Fairs program, for increased membership, for greater participation in the national conference, for increasingly innovative professional development opportunities, for significant influence on public policy issues particularly supporting student access to higher education, for more in-depth and broader dissemination of relevant research, for increased resources to support special projects and for significant influence for ethical and best practices in college admission.
We can all be proud of the organization we have become and of the one we are becoming!